For airlines, a clean engine is a cheaper-running engine

Cleansing system cuts fuel costs, saves millions of dollars

June 15, 2008|By J. LYNN LUNSFORD The Wall Street Journal

As airlines search for new ways to combat rising fuel costs, a growing number are finding that a nice hot bath can save millions of dollars.

In recent months, 50 airlines have hired United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney unit to wash their engines with a new machine that can deep-clean while simultaneously collecting and purifying the hazardous runoff.

With fuel now the largest component of operating costs, carriers are turning to fuel-saving measures that once seemed hardly worthwhile. Since 2001, hundreds of jetliners worldwide have been outfitted with upswept wingtips that increase range and make them more aerodynamically efficient. Pilots routinely taxi to and from the runway on one engine to save fuel and operate planes' auxiliary power units and other equipment as little as possible. But the industry is running out of easy fixes.

Pratt & Whitney's engine-washing system, called EcoPower, has been under development since 2004, but only recently have the potential fuel savings become a big selling point.

"When fuel was a quarter of its current cost, engine washing didn't look as attractive as it does now," says Rick Wysong, a vice president of maintenance in charge of engineering for UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, one of EcoPower's largest customers.

Since 2004, Pratt & Whitney has performed more than 2,000 of these engine washes. Now, it says demand for the service has grown to the point that it will likely wash 5,000 engines this year. "This is the right technology at exactly the right time in the industry," says Jim Keenan, senior vice president and general manager of Pratt's Global Service Partners, which manages programs such as EcoPower.

Other engine manufacturers are working to field similar technologies. But so far, Pratt & Whitney has a jump on competitors with a proprietary system that is mounted on trucks, so it can be used at the gate on any jet engine, regardless of the manufacturer. The trucks can filter the runoff - much of which is toxic - at the same time. Pratt then disposes of the hazardous materials.

Pratt says scouring caked-on grime from the inside of an engine can reduce fuel consumption by roughly 1.2 percent. That may not sound like much, but it adds up quickly. Pratt contends that if every airline in the world washed its engines, the industry could save about $1 billion a year in fuel costs and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 3.2 billion pounds. Clean engines also run cooler, allowing airlines to avoid costly overhauls for as long as 18 additional months. Washing takes about 90 minutes and uses power from the plane's auxiliary power unit and the wash truck. Washing pays for itself in a matter of weeks.

Even though they have yet to wash their entire fleets, officials for Southwest Airlines Co. and United, two of EcoPower's biggest clients, say they are already realizing savings. "It's more than just a subtle improvement when they wash these engines," says Johnny Holley, manager of Southwest's engine maintenance and engineering. "A phenomenal amount of fuel can be saved doing this."

Southwest started its new washing program in April and as of late May had done 248 engine washes. The company estimates its fuel savings from those washes alone have totaled about $1.6 million. United says it is washing its entire fleet at least twice a year, which amounts to about 3,000 washes annually. It plans to wash its long-haul airplane engines more often. United says its tests have shown that washing engines will help it save about 3 million gallons of fuel annually.

EcoPower is showing signs of becoming a lucrative venture for Pratt; the list price for each wash is between $3,000 and $5,000, depending on the engine's size, though large customers typically get discounts.

In addition to United and Southwest, customers include Air India, Hawaiian Holdings Inc.'s Hawaiian Airlines, Martinair, Northwest Airlines Corp., Singapore Airlines Ltd., Deutsche Lufthansa AG's Swiss International Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. Pratt says it is in talks with several other carriers, some of which are currently conducting field trials.

The industry has known for years that cleaner engines are more efficient, but the science never evolved much beyond spraying them down outside the maintenance hangar with fire hoses or "shepherd's crook" sprayers that spewed hazardous solvents.

During thousands of hours of operation, gunk in the air builds up an oily crust on the tiny fan blades that compress intake air before it enters the combustion chamber. Over time, the engine becomes less efficient and starts to run at a hotter temperature, which increases wear and burns more fuel.